Friday, May 11, 2007

c1793 Jewish Letter Sent From Petersburg

"All the people who hear that we are leaving give us their blessing. They say that it is sinful that such blessed children should be brought up here in Petersburg. My children cannot learn anything here, nothing Jewish, nothing of general culture. My Schoene (my daughter), God bless her, is already three years old; I think it is time that she should leansomething, and she has a good head to lean. I taught her the bedtime prayers and grace after meals in just two lessons. I believe that no one among the Jews here can do as well as she. And my Sammy (born in 1790), God bless him, is already beginnig to talk." Rebecca SamuelSee http://www.jwa.org/teach/golearn/nov05/RebeccaSamuelLetter.pdf

Her husband was Hyman Samuel, a Silversmith, from London, who was operating in Petersburg from 1791 thru 1795. He advertised, April 27, 1791, that he made and repaired watches in Petersburg, and also "all kinds of silver and goldsmith's work, jewellery, engraving on silver, gold, and other metals." See VA Gazette and Agricultural Repository, June 16, 1791.

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About Me

Noted public speaker, historical researcher and author. Lecture topics presented include Making History in Virginia; The Brig Creole Insurrection of 1841; Freed Blacks; Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly, Dr. Thomas Stewart, John Day, Thomas Day, of Dinwiddie County, Virginia; The "Keziah Affair" of 1858, in which a Delaware schooner was caught smuggling five slaves out of Petersburg, an example of the active Undergound Railroad in the area.